It’s a celebration of community every Thursday in the Mission.
Along Bartlett Street, food stalls line the street. Where it turns onto 22nd Street, the market wraps around to a bustling array of vendors selling everything from eggplants to strawberries.
At a stall selling Mexican food, a couple peruses the offerings, their toddler gleefully devouring a sample. Two elderly ladies walk the street slowly, stopping for samosas and eagerly chatting with the sellers.
A handful of chefs in white, their names and restaurants embroidered over their chests, chat with sellers while loading their arms with produce.
Many shoppers are greeted by name. And on the sidewalks, friends meet and embrace, turning the block into more than a market. The Mission Community Market is a nexus of community. It celebrates its 15th season on Thursday.
“At first, every day was a little sad, because not many [people] showed up,” said Poli Yerena, a vendor, of those early years.
In those days, Yerena sold only six cases of strawberries a week. Now, he easily sells more than 70 cases every Thursday from the stand he runs with his wife, Silvia, and his son, Alex.
“Everybody shops with Poli,” a passerby gleefully shouted when Yerena explained he was being interviewed.
Everything changed in 2014, when the market expanded from Bartlett onto 22nd Street. Since 22nd butts up against the perpetually busy Mission Street, the expansion meant the neighborhood began stumbling upon the market more and more. Now, they see 1,000-1,500 customers every Thursday, said Andrea Akers, the market’s manager.
The market, which runs from 3 to 7 p.m. every Thursday, is managed by Foodwise, which took over the market from volunteers in 2018.
On Thursday, the market’s Quinceñera will mean celebrating its growth from 10 to nearly 30 sellers.
Kim Leonard has seen it all from her vantage point. She has no tent to cast shade over her for the duration of the four-hour-long market, no elaborate booth setup, only an assortment of aromatherapy sprays and mason jars of skincare products neatly arranged on her table.
She’s one of the market’s “Day Ones.”
Leonard has seen children go from three years old to graduating high school. She glows with pride as someone she watched grow up moves out on their own for the first time, gets married, or has their first child. “I’m the auntie,” she said.
One couple met in front of her booth. “She used to only come here for my stuff and then go around a corner and get some chicken,” said Leonard, “[She’d] go home, and then he would come by maybe an hour or two later looking for her,” she said.
Eventually, Leonard told him what time to come by her booth to meet the object of his affections. “I was kind of like the wingman,” Leonard said. Now, the couple is getting married.
Another draw to the market is its Market Match program, which provides a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $15 toward fruits and vegetables when you present a CalFresh EBT card at the market.
Akers said the program is a reason why many choose this market over others. Funding for the program comes from a combination of state, federal, and private sources, and in 2024, Market Match was used 2,662 times at the Mission Community Market.
Shoppers find this program so important that, when it was under threat last year, customers and farmers joined forces to protest its elimination at the Capitol in Sacramento, said Akers.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I’m getting a free $15,’ it’s like, ‘Oh, no, that free $15 is helping me feed my family,”’ Akers said.
Phil Carter’s family has been running a stand at the market since almost the beginning. They started just a few months after the market first opened 15 years ago, and at that time, it was his parents running the operation.
Their farm, Winters Fruit Tree Farm in Winters, California, was originally started by Carter’s great-grandparents in the 1920s and kept alive through the generations.
“I tagged along, I was just making a ruckus,” said Carter. He was 16 at the time. Over the years, Carter has come to appreciate the market’s “community party vibe” and recalled that the craziest day he ever saw at the market was when the Giants won the World Series in 2010.
At the time, the market ran until 8 p.m.. The 7:30 p.m. win came after a 56-year drought, prompting riots and celebrations to sweep through the city later that night.
“When they won, it was just like a party out here, with people just causing chaos,” said Carter. The manager at the time told sellers to pack up their belongings, in case things got especially rowdy. Closing the market early is a particularly rare event.
The market has weathered storms both metaphorical and actual. During a thunderstorm, Akers remembers “standing here under this tent and holding on for dear life” while torrential rain dumped on the market for nearly 10 minutes straight.
Considered essential work, the market continued on during the pandemic. Apart from people wearing masks and standing six feet apart, everything stayed the same. Carter said that this “brought some normal” to his day when everything else was not.
Paul Valdez was one of those customers who continued to shop at the market through the pandemic. Valdez has lived in the Mission for 18 years, and has been going to the market every week for the last 13.
“I guess I’m kind of a creature of habit, and so Thursdays at Mission Community Market is part of the habit,” said Valdez.
Every Thursday, he leaves work at 4 p.m. and heads over to the market. First, he greets everyone. He’s on a first-name basis with all the sellers, which he rattles off with the familiarity of an old friend. When buying his produce, he lingers.
“[The sellers] really take the time to look us in the eye, give us a moment,” Valdez said.
After learning when garlic is in season, what it pairs with, and what recipe he should try next, Valdez heads to the sidewalk corner. This is where he reunites with friends in the neighborhood each week. The market gives them the excuse and the atmosphere to meet up in the midst of their busy schedules.
They’re always looking to make more friends, too. “If you hang out with us, guaranteed one of us will be always like, ‘Hey!’, waving at somebody,” Valdez said.
This Thursday, shoppers can expect all the usual vendors they’ve come to expect. But the whole market will be amped up just a few degrees. Some vendors are offering special deals for the occasion, free tote bags will be handed out by Foodwise, and samples of food made with in-season produce with free recipes will be handed out.
There will also be live music, and coloring pages for the kids. They might even be able to get all the sellers to wear birthday hats.
As Akers put it, “The Quince needs to be celebrated, you know?”
I’ve never shopped much at this market, but now that I know someone there is selling Mexican food, I’ll definitely come by there tomorrow.